The Pew Commission report says that industrial scale farm animal operations cause "unacceptable" risk to public health and the environment. There are many confined animal feeding operationsCAFO's) in the Maumee/River Rasin/Lake Erie watershed and more proposed. recently Shefield Dairy has been cited.

Fermi 3 Coastal Wetlands

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality says this about Fermi 3's coastal wetland take will be one of the most significant coastal wetland take in the history of Michigan Coastal wetlands statutes. For the MDEQ statement to the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions click here

Fermi Three will draw 49 million gallons of water from the Western Basin of Lake Erie - just under the radar of 50 million gallons that would require an analysis of the increased fish kills and the thermal plumes. The Fermi application said that phosphorous is not a problem in the Western Lake Erie basin. The application also denied the existence of Maumee Bay. These are major problems in the application that need to be addressed as part of the EIS.

The Ottawa River's contaminated sediments are close to getting dredged. The cost - and estimated $48 million. Agreements by responsible parties have been reached and the project should by underway this summer. Thanks to US Fish & Wildlife and USEPA for keeping the public informed and making this project happen

Great Lakes Compact

Most herald the passing of the Great Lakes Compact but there is skepticism on the part of some including Marcy Kaptur who worry that water will be treated as a commodity and will be sold in 5.7 gallon containers under NAFTA and other treaties and laws. Click here for the Compact.

Ohio still needs to pass, required by the Compact, implementing legislation on water conservation, protecting water quantities in streams and bottled water. This will be important in the 2009 legislative session.

Lake Erie has two primary sources of phosphorous - the Maumee and Detroit Rivers. In 2009 the Detroit Free Press and the Windsor Star talk about the magnitude of the problem. Turbidity contributes to the growth of bad algae according to a 2009 study. Most say that the most phosphorous in Western Lake Erie comes from agricultural runoff from the Maumee. Additional phosphorous comes from sediments that are open lake dumped, lawn fertilizer, wastewater plants, storm water, factory farms, and??? Studies on algae in the Maumee and Lake Erie continue. The power plants should make every effort to reduce the increased temperatures into the bay and lake of their 3 billion gallons of water used daily.

What can people do to help? Use dishwasher detergent with no or low amounts of phosphorous - some have 8.5% - others have none. If you use lawn fertilizer, when your lawn is mature no phosphorous is needed. The middle number on the bad should be zero - if you hire your lawn to be fertilized - ask for no phosphorous. Get in touch with the Waterkeeper and get a group top check the levels of phosphorous in a ditch, creek, or river near where you live

WAYS TO HELP LAKE ERIE WATER...FISH

Buildings, streets, yards and parking lots take the place of bare ground, forests and wetlands. Lake Erie is 80% developed with farms, urban, etc. with the greatest loss of wetlands. As in the 50-s and 60's, the Western Lake Erie waters having growing quantities of algae because of too much phosphorous that dies and creates a dead zone -water without oxygen in the central basin of Lake Erie.

Ohio EPA together with local public water suppliers with visible algae near the intake are testing the water for cyanotobacteria to protect public health. Open lake dumping continued through the summer and is ongoing in the fall. Open lake dumping increases turbidity that increases algae (Ohio State Sea Grant UT Lake Erie Center 2009).

For the past three years teh Detroit wastewater plant has been dumping tens of thousands of sewage sludge into the Detroit and Rouge Rivers. The problem peaked in the summer of 2011 when only two of the 14 incenerators were operational and the sludge got out of hand. The quantity that went into the rivers and Lake Erie is being determined. The Detroit Wastewater Plant is the largest single unit plant in the U.S. The plant dumps billions of gallons of raw sewage, partially treated sewage and combined sewers into Lake Erie each year contributing to the algal blooms.

An appeal has been filed to the permit issued by Ohio EPA to allow 800,000 cubic yards of dredged sediments to be dumped in the open lack The National Wildlife Federation, Ohio Environmental Council, Izaac Walton League, Lake Erie Charterboat Association and the Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper Associationfiled the appeal to the permit. The press release in the appeal. A letter from OEPA Director Chris Korleski and ODNR Director Sean Logan asks the Army Corps of Engineers to put put all dredged sediments in the open lake in the summer of 2010. Please keep the pressure on not to allow all sediments to be open lake dumped. Call Governor Strickland at 614-466-3555.

"The Sierra Club, in tandem with Harbor View - a village downwind of the proposed site - has appealed the permit modification on the grounds that too much time has elapsed." -- The Blade, April 1, 2008

On January 31, 2008, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency had issued a modified permit-to-install for FDS Coke LLC. To read the OEPA news release, click here.

The January 31, 2008, permit-to-install is available here, and the June 21, 2007, FDS application is available here.

The OEPA refuses to set any standards in this permit for the 1.1 million tons of CO2, the most conspicuous greenhouse gas, that will be released.

This new coke plant will have more emissions than the old Interlake Coke Plant on Front St. in Toledo, Ohio . . . about 3x more, according to OEPA records.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's response to public from December 2007 submissions is available here.

Additionally, the OEPA has also issued a permit-to-install for "a cooling tower to be used as part of an electric generation facility the company also plans to build." You can view this permit here.

Further information from the Ohio EPA about the proposed FDS Coke plant in Toledo and Oregon, Ohio, can be found here.

To learn more about this plant of heavy pollution and its unknown backers, please head over to our Coke Plant page.

Bayshore First Energy Fish Kills Etc

First Energy announces reduced plant operations OEPA says Bayshore fish kill permit decision in about 60 days from June 23rd.

For the company Kinetrics summary report on fish kills click here For the full company Kinetrics report on fish kills click here

To catch and eat fish requires a license and then there are rules. To kill the fish and do nothing - unlicensed - no rules. The Bayshore Power Plant is known as the Great Lakes largest fish killing power plant. The Bayshore plant, according to OEPA, kills more fish than all of the other Ohio power plants combined. ODNR says the power plant kills more fish than all the hatcheries produce annually,

The Maumee River is the most biologically productive river in the Great Lakes and the power plant in the fall, according to power plant studies, pulls the entire Maumee River waters through the plant in a day. The Bayshore power plant is also thought to be the largest fish killing plant in the Great Lakes with company studies showing over 46 million fish per year caught against the screens and over 2 billion larval fish that go through the screens. This averages to 126,000 fish per day on the screens and 6 million larval fish per day through the screens. Limits are set on sports fish for all that catch the fish and eat them but the power company that harms the fish with mercury, kills the fish from thermal water use and feeds the algae by warming the water has no limits, pays nothing, and degrades the ecosystem of Maumee Bay and western Lake Erie....

The power plant owners, Bayshore/Toledo Edison/First Energy comment on the fish kills in a September 28th, 2008 Press Publication article. Mark Durbin, Edison Communications, states that a fish diversion plan and cooling tower are both options First Energy is looking at. He calls the cooling tower possible but not probable - click here for the story.

The appeal on the fish kills is on hold - waiting to see if the anounced closing of three of the four units will happen and if First Energy will put up the louvers for the 185 million gallons a day, that they committed to. The estimated loss due to the natural resource damages caused by the fish kills has been estimated at $30 million a year. The Bayshore power plant was ordered by Ohio EPA to reduce larval fish kills by 60% and juvenile and other fish kills by 80%. To accomplish this, OEPA is requiring Bayshore to:

1.Provide information on the Louver study by March 1, 20112.Plans using Best Available technology(BTA) by July 1, 2011

3.Begin construction by March 1, 2012 4.Construction complete by April 1, 2013

Hers is a link to the press release, a summary report and the full report. The report does not provide immediate steps needed to reduce phosphorous loads but rather recommends more studies and voluntary steps. With Lake Erie levels 9" lower than in 2009, heavy rainfalls and major wind events, Lake Erie could be in for a devastating 2010. Waterkeeper comments and suggested comment letters to come.

Above is the report that was promised to address agricultural nutrient inputs to Lake Erie. The report calls for voluntary action and fails to do anything close for Lake Erie compared to Grand Lake St. Marys.

While Ohio has aggressively taken action to help Grand Lake St. Marys - with $5 million for alum in 2012 alone, continuous monitors, sediment traps, algae collectors, aerators and...a ban on fertilizer and liquid manure on frozen ground, Lake Erie is getting voluntary steps and $50,000 to educate the farmers.

Furthermore the report highlights what great economic impact farms have while remaining silent on the over 100,000 jobs and over $10 billion to the economy that Lake Erie supports along with drinking water for millions of Ohioans. Lake Erie generates millions in tax dollars for fishing and boating licenses and fines. $50,000 for Lake Erie in 2012 is an insult.

Lake Erie needs monitors at the tributary outfalls and in the lake, a Batelle assessment similar to what was done for Grand Lake St. Marys, and $5 million to do pilot demonstration projects as is being done for Grand Lake St. Marys. Lake Erie needs help and Ohio needs to give back some of what it is getting from Lake Erie to help Lake Erie's troubled waters.

Sandy

Here is Governor Kasich's contact information - tell him to help Lake Erie and tributaries with monitors and do a Batelle study that recommends $5 million in projects that can give Lake Erie's troubled waters some relief. Tell him Lake Erie needs as much or more help than Grand Lake St. Marys.

Tell Senat - Ohio implementing language for Great Lakes Compact falls short of protecting Lake Erie water quality and quantity and right of water users - not just shoreline owners - to appeal water decisions. Please call the Ohio Senate ----

The report promised to address agricultural nutrient inputs to Lake Erie. All it does is ask for voluntary action and fails to do anything close for Lake Erie. Ohio is doing much more for the nutrient problem at Grand Lake St. Marys. Ohio's actions for Grand Lake St. Marys has been aggressive - with $5 million for alum in 2012 alone, continuous monitors, sediment traps, algae collectors, aerators and...a ban on fertilizer and liquid manure on frozen ground, Lake Erie is getting voluntary steps and $50,000 to educate the farmers. The Ohio Ag Lake Erie report highlights what great economic impact farms have while remaining silent on the over 100,000 jobs and over $10 billion to the economy that Lake Erie supports along with drinking water for millions of Ohioans. Lake Erie generates millions in tax dollars for fishing and boating licenses and fines. $50,000 for Lake Erie in 2012 is an insult. Lake Erie needs monitors at the tributary outfalls and in the lake, a Batelle assessment similar to what was done for Grand Lake St. Marys, and $5 million to do pilot demonstration projects as is being done for Grand Lake St. Marys. Lake Erie needs help and Ohio needs to give back some of what it is getting from Lake Erie to help Lake Erie's troubled waters.

Tell Governor Kasich he needs to do more to help Lake Erie Here - tell him to help Lake Erie and tributaries with monitors and do a Batelle study that recommends $5 million in projects that can give Lake Erie's troubled waters some relief. Tell him Lake Erie needs as much or more help than Grand Lake St. Marys.